Easily distracted by shiny objects.

September 28, 2007

Naomi Klein argues that catastrophes, natural (New Orleans) or staged (Iraq) are the means by which capitalism tightens its grip. These disasters set off economic convulsions which allow helpless populations to be coerced into accepting unpopular market reforms. She goes into the details of how populist governments were overthrown in Central and South America for the sake of "globalization."

Here she is being interviewed on the Huffington Post. I must say her analyis just plain frightens me. I don't think it will be possible for the left to win this one. Too many people have drunk the Koolaid .

Klein's description of the Green Zone as a Carnival Cruise ship in an ocean of despair chills me. Is this the way we are tending?

Spiegel Magazin ran this interview with Naomi Klein. Note that she is getting respectful press in a country that is far from being even leftist, although it does have more social democratic features than the U.S. This text is in German. I'll try to find it in English.

Among the many terrifying things Klein says is that states that want to institute unpopular economic "reforms" will resort to torturing opponents of their agenda. Let us not be blinded by their self righteous propaganda about markets and democracy,freedom,elections and so on. They don't mean it. And if they can no longer manipulate us this way they will take out the long knives, as they have in Chile, Argentina, Panama, Iraq, etc. etc.

There are too many people in the world for the taste of the elites anyway. If the whole population of Iraq were to vanish tomorrow, Bechtel and Hallburton would do a victory dance. Iraqis don't go along with what the corporations want, so they are expendable. The same is true for millions of us Americans. If we are not making money for the capitalists, or helping make life nice for them, then what in the world is the good of us?

September 26, 2007

September 25, 2007

That would seem to be one thesis of this column by Erin Wiegand which Feministe links to. In reference to the column, Jill writes:

"The imaging of Muslim women is often strategic — veiled women are physical representations of oppression rather than actual people. The “what’s next, burqas?” line is trotted out pretty regularly as a response to Western oppressions — because those covered women are obviously the most oppressed of the oppressed. Muslim women have long been positioned as a counterpoint to Western women — sure, things aren’t perfect here, but we’re way more enlightened than them. Muslim women’s bodies are stand-ins for misogyny, oppression, and religious extremism.

Here is what I say in the comments section of Feministe (slightly edited):Several things came to my mind:

-The times women have said to me, “I’m so lucky to be an American woman, we’re so much better off than X women in (some oppressive dictatorship).” Such women have not always been that lucky as far as I can see. So to some extent, the “oppressed” woman in other cultures becomes symbolic of someone else’s comparative freedom; this can lead women not to fight hard enough for their own full human rights.

-The notion that Western feminism has led to increased oppression of women in non-western societies. I never heard that one before. I’m sure the opposite is true. For the first time in human history there is a sustained and progressing vision of equality between the sexes.

-My lack of knowledge of how strong feminism has been in other cultures. My guess is that wherever feminism has cropped up in the past it has been crushed. I cite the example of pre-WW II Japanese feminism, which was buried alive.

And so on. Very thought-provoking, in any case.

Footnote: How can anyone blame feminists for the backlash against feminism? The anti-feminists are the ones responsible for what they do. If reactionaries here or elsewhere claim that "feminism made me do it," they're using that as an excuse to oppress women. Just because a lot of people are antagonistic to feminism does not mean feminists should give up, much less that feminism is damaging the cause of women.

September 24, 2007

This is a commentary on the speech Ahmadinejad gave that caused such a furor and turned him into the favored target of the Republican warmongers. And here is what Juan Cole has to say about Ahmadinejad today.

Demonizing Ahmadinejad will not work in the long run, although there will be short term propaganda gains. Glenn Greenwald has more than a few choice words on the topic of the campaign against this man that is part of the lead up to the attack on Iran that Bush and Cheney so desire. I am very much reminded of anti-Castro propaganda, and we know how well that has worked! I just hope Israel can stay clear of the mess to come.

September 21, 2007

September 19, 2007

I have found a new love: the Sony Reader T just bought for me. It's as good as reading a book. Better, because I can download the complete works of Gertrude Atherton from Gutenberg, or anything else from Gutenberg, for free. I'm reading The Californians now-- an entertaining novel and full of interest to me, because it's about the California Spanish and the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1880's. The heroine is someone I recognize and identify with. Residues of the ideas in this work were still in the air when I was growing up, such things as that girls were ranked as to their worth by how beautiful they were and men by how good they were at business, that Spanish girls were "tainted" if they had sallow skin, that the men had secret lives of drinking, carousing, prostititutes and mistresses. And that good women should not ever be associated with the life of the streets and should not even know about it. Atherton was a very bold writer, and an intelligent one, not to be patronized in any way. If she's forgotten, it's because women get forgotten. We remember Jack London, but we don't remember her.

Weight's creeping up on me again. Must take action. This happens every time I go to the Mainland. I load up on things I can't get here: good bread and potatoes, wonderful varieties of cheese and cold cuts. This is madness. On the other hand, it's madness to diet and bad for women of my age. Too hard on the heart and nerves.

So it's extra time on the elliptical. No between meal snacks. I exercise aerobically every day already, but I have to increase that without overdoing it.